Lt. Gov. Murray faces two big roadblocks

But not only must Murray run defending Gov. Deval Patrick's record for the eight years he served as second banana, he must also defend his own record as well.

Murray, the affable former mayor of Worcester, is about as hardworking a public official as there is, and he has the enthusiastic support of Patrick. But it is going to take more than that -- much more -- for Murray to prevail over other Democrats who will challenge him for governor, both at the 2014 party convention and in the primary.

Patrick will not be around much for the 2014 campaign, having chosen not to run for re-election. Patrick will be leaving to enter the private sector.

So it is questionable how much help Patrick will be to Murray, his loyal sidekick, even as other Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls will go after Murray.

Murray right off the bat is politically vulnerable in two areas. One is the trail of questionable responses to inquiries surrounding his mysterious high-speed car crash. This was when the lieutenant governor, behind the wheel with the pedal to the metal at 108 mph, totaled his state car on a lonely and dark road Nov. 2, 2011.

He may have been using his cellphone at the time, but a record of his calls has not been made public, and Murray has yet to come up with a plausible explanation about the event.

Advertisement

The other is his dubious association with Michael McLaughlin, the disgraced former head of the Chelsea Housing Authority, who resigned under pressure after it was reported that McLaughlin deliberately concealed his inflated $360,000-a-year salary.

Murray had a good opportunity to take the issue on -- and perhaps even get in front of it -- during a housing press conference Patrick held last week dealing with his proposal to reorganize the administration of public housing in Massachusetts.

However, Murray, who is Patrick's liaison to local communities as well as his point man on housing issues, let the opportunity slip by when he failed to join in with the governor. Patrick fairly bristled when asked about Murray's absence.

This Chelsea housing scandal led to stories about abuses by housing officials in other housing authorities across the state, all of which paled in significance compared to what took place in Chelsea, where McLaughlin ruled like a monarch.

McLaughlin is under state and federal investigation for, among other things, allegedly strong-arming housing-authority employees to contribute money to Murray's 2006 campaign, and to attend fundraisers on Murray's behalf. Murray has been questioned under oath about the events and his relationship with McLaughlin. And despite the fact that Murray has since put distance between himself and McLaughlin, the two appeared to have been close at one time, and Murray did help McLaughlin's son Matthew get a $60,000-a-year state job.

The Chelsea Housing scandal and related housing stories led Patrick to come up with legislation, aired at a press conference last week, that would bring the 240 local housing authorities under state control. Not only would the housing boards be eliminated, but Patrick would create six new regional agencies to oversee all local public housing.

Merits of the bill aside, what piqued the interest of political observers was the fact that Murray was nowhere to be seen at the Statehouse that day. Often, Murray is standing with the governor when the governor announces important initiatives, like the transportation press conference on Monday.

By his absence, Murray made it abundantly clear that he decided to distance himself from the housing issue -- an issue that he once championed -- so he could avoid questions about his relationship with housing authorities, including the Chelsea Housing Authority.

There are more than 1,000 housing authority commissioners in the state, most of whom are appointed locally. Many of them are and have been politically active. They oversee the housing of some 300,000 people, most of whom are elderly and low-income residents.

Murray could have used the housing press conference event to take the lead on the issue. He could have answered questions about his past experiences in dealing with housing-authority members, as well as addressed the future of housing authorities in the state. It would have done him good since he could have put the issue behind him.

Instead he chose to be out of the building. His absence spoke volumes, and the issue lingers.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.